Costs of the U.K. summer riots of 2011 are estimated at over £100 million
(Hawkes, Garside & Kollewe, 2011). Poor parenting was viewed as one of the
main reasons for the riots. The high costs associated with problematic and
antisocial child behaviour has led to an increased interest in parenting within U.K. policy and agendas (Allen, 201 la).
Health economics is an application of the discipline of economics and has
grown from Welfarism and Extra Welfarism. Health economists have developed
standard methods of evaluation to meet the evidence requirements of publicly
funded health care systems facing the need for constrained choice. These standard methods are limited when it comes to measuring benefits where the direct beneficiaries are children. The aim of this thesis was to assess the different approaches required to conduct an economic evaluation of a complex intervention in which the principal beneficiaries are young children, using the Incredible Years (IY) Toddler and Basic Parenting Programmes as case studies (Webster-Stratton, 1984; 2008). It explored previous evidence in the form of a literature review and methodological issues in the form of micro-costing, cost-consequence, cost-effectiveness and social return on investment analyses. The thesis also explored the issue of externalities in the form of assessing outcomes for parents and long-term outcomes.
This thesis concludes that there is little economic evidence of parenting
programmes for young children and a lack of standardisation of methodology,
thereby making comparisons of programmes difficult. Future research should
focus on the wider benefits of parenting programmes and take a longitudinal or
modelling approach when assessing early intervention programmes. Researchers
should also be mindful of who their evidence will serve, using outcomes and
forms of analysis that are meaningful to service commissioners and policy
makers. This will help build a strong clinical and economic evidence base of
parenting programmes.